Applications for membership on City of Milpitas” new campaign finance reform committee that will review and potentially change the city”s existing campaign finance ordinance are due at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 14. Mayor Jose Esteves last month recommended the seven-member panel be formed to curb the influence of special interest groups during local elections.

Milpitas City Council voted unanimously Dec. 16 to authorize the mayor”s request and create the temporary, ad hoc advisory body, but has yet to confirm appointment of its committee members.

The council is expected to review the panel”s membership at its Jan. 20 meeting.

Esteves explained his idea to form the panel came during November”s election when a developer-backed political action committee arose. Prior to the election, Newport Beach-based Integral Communities, which had two housing projects at stake in the Great Mall area, donated monies to that outside political action committee. That entity backed council candidates Marsha Grilli and Deepka Lalwani and was called the Committee to Support Grilli and Lalwani for City Council 2014.

Integral, Lyon Management Group Inc., also of Newport Beach, John Previte of Santa Clara, and Republic Services donated a total of $43,000 to the group, whose treasurer was former councilman Armando Gomez”s wife, Bernadette Gomez.

In the end, Grilli along with Garry Barbadillo were elected to the council, beating out six other candidates including Lalwani.

Last month Integral, following controversy over plans to fundamentally change previously approved mixed-use housing projects, decided to completely withdraw its plans from further city scrutiny, due to strong resistance from city staff and a Milpitas Planning Commission recommendation to deny the projects.

According to Esteves, he wanted a campaign finance reform committee to look with fresh eyes toward legally changing the city”s ordinance to reduce the undue influence of outside special interest groups. He added any potential changes could be put into the city”s campaign finance ordinance before the 2016 election.

Review of Milpitas” campaign finance ordinance comes a few years after changes were made to local election financing. In 2011, a prior council adopted the city”s Campaign Finance Reform Ordinance. Originally crafted over several months by the Milpitas Campaign Finance Task Force, the ordinance included raising the campaign donation limit from $350 per donation to $500 per donation and introduced a voluntary campaign expenditure ceiling of $60,000, among other changes.

Applicants interested in applying to the campaign finance reform committee should submit names to the Milpitas City Clerk Office”s on the third floor of city hall at 455 E. Calaveras Blvd. For more information, contact City Clerk Mary Lavelle at (408) 586-3001 or email mlavelle@ci.milpitas.ca.gov.